Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Confessions of a Nerdy Girl

If you're following my bog, and following me on Facebook, you've probably seen some strange pictures of my husband and I...

Such as


and wondered "WHAT ON EARTH ARE THEY WEARING?"

Well let me explain... 

Through our two and a half years of marriage, Eric and I have come to learn just how secretly (at least at the
 time) nerdy we both are. I used to hide the fact that I played video games non stop or that I had a secret droid crush on R2D2...

Perhaps the loving support of a Nerdy husband is what gave me the courage to come out of my proverbial "nerd closet." It started out simple, growing my online group of game-playing friends, then found other friends at work who were as nerdy (or more) as I. Eventually I could no longer hide the fact that I long for the weekends we spend at Cons (comic book conventions) or sitting around playing video games all day together.

Soon the nerd-innocent girl went away to be replaced with, well, me!

We discovered last year that we had family in town, cousins on Eric's side. It didn't take long to realize they were just as nerdy as us! (to their credit, they were all dressed up in costumes at a Con when we reunited with them.)

Mega Con 2012

Since my... coming out... My collection of Nerdiness has expanded into a large collection of R2D2 paraphernalia, board games, card games, and so much more! 

But back to the first picture... 

 Last year we found out that our cousins (pictured above with lightsabers) were members of the Rebel Legion Star Wars Fan Club. It's an international Star Wars costuming organization created by, of, and for people interested in creating costumes for the Star Wars Mythos. In short, people who make screen accurate costumes from the Star Wars movies. 

Once we learned this, our cousins greatly encouraged us to join! This was no simple task... and would take a lot of imagination and work on our part. 

We started by purchasing our base costume. This included Under Tunic, Tunic, Tabbards, Obi (or sash), Belt and Pants (These were found on Ebay). I found an online tutorial for making our own lightsaber hilts, which involved a massive treasure hunt around Home Depot until we found all the little pieces we needed. Add in some boots, homemade food capsules, pouches, and some sewing adjustments, our costumes were complete and we submitted them to the Judges at the Rebel Legion in December. 


Now you're probably asking "what's the purpose?" 

Well, our worldwide members often choose to give back to their communities through costumed volunteer activities and charity event. You can see many of our members around the world at Cons, Toy Drives, Disney, local hospitals, and much more! Members are always looking for a way to use their costumes for good. 

Our first troop was the past Sunday at Tampa Bay Toy and Comic Con. We volunteered our time to dress up, stand around, look cool, and get our pictures taken A LOT! I know this sounds a little "self-centered" but if you understood the world of Nerds, getting your picture taken with 10 storm troopers or a horde of Jedi, you'd understand how cool it is... Having the Rebel Legion present at these events brings lots of joy to many kids, excitement to teens, and childhood memories to adults. 

Photo credit to Christian Wingate
All in all, we're nerds! And we love Star Wars. It really is a childish dream that we get to dress up as Jedi, carry around lightsabers, and ward off storm troopers. We even got to force choke Darth Vader! 


And hang out with a Wookie and a Ewok!


I'm glad to be out of my "nerd closet" for the whole world to know! So bring on the R2D2 action figures, the Star Wars Nursery for our coming baby, and the strange pictures of us with dozens of Science Fiction copy-cats. We love it and I ain't going back to life before I met my nerdy-like-me husband. 

May the Force be With You...

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